


Something Interesting

by ProbablyNotATree



Category: Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Fusion, Gen, Post-Canon, bad memories, it's mostly because i like combining characters together and seeing what it produces, it's purely platonic fusion, like Steven Universe-esque fusion, poor boy, rhys vomits a little bit, this was also a kind of character study on rhys and fiona, trying to see what they're personalities would be like when combined
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 11:11:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9437498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProbablyNotATree/pseuds/ProbablyNotATree
Summary: Your name is Fiona. You've just found an Echo-Comm that talks about a mysterious mountain that contains something big and scary. Naturally, you're curious.:[Leave it there]::[Look for the owner]:>[Show it to Sasha]





	1. Prologue

The ground is shaking beneath you. Your friends are cowering beside you. The wall sitting opposite you in the distance of the chamber is splitting in half, and as you cast your gaze deep into the ominous maw of the crumbling structure, you see movement.

Many large eyes glow purple, as whatever monstrosity lies within begins to unfurl itself into the chamber you’ve found yourself in. Wow, you’re in a real pickle now, aren’t you? And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?” In a blind panic, you cast your mind back to earlier that day, hoping to find something to act as some form of comfort, or maybe something to help you out of your current predicament.

Spoiler alert: you won’t.


	2. A Rusty Echo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We meet our first hero. Out for a stroll, it seems.

You’re walking through the decrepit streets of Hollow Point. Out to pick-pocket some random civilian? Maybe steal some expensive looking loot. Maybe you’re just out for a stroll.

Your name is Fiona. It always has been, and always will be. Who else did you think you were?

You decide that you’re just out for a stroll. You’ve found vault hunting to be a rather entertaining and rewarding new career, yet extremely dangerous and understandably stressful. Admittedly, you’ve been disappointingly unsuccessful since the Vault of the Traveller, but hey! At least you’ve actually _found_ a vault before, which is way better than some vault hunters can say.

You hope that a casual walk will help ease your mind. With a flick of your wrist, you distend the small revolver fastened to your wrist and twist the coloured elemental barrels for what seems like the 100th time since you left (which wasn’t really that long ago). The little whirring sound of the rotating metal has become a rather relaxing sound to you, plus you always found that it looked pretty intimidating when you did it at random people on the street. You never go anywhere without it. It’s your backup plan.

You look up from your gun to find yourself in an unfamiliar alleyway. Well, you can’t really say unfamiliar. You’ve lived in this city all your life, and have pretty well explored every inch of it with your sister, Sasha. No, this is just an alleyway you’ve learned to avoid, lest you run into Eridium junkies, umbrella wielding psychopaths, or this one weird guy who wears clogs and asks whether you have any kitchen utensils he can smell. Thankfully, you find none of the above, just you and your thoughts. And something shiny.

Your eyes hone in on something lying on the ground, hidden partially from view by a precarious stack of wooden crates. You approach the object and squat to the ground to get a better look. You discover that it is an old, battered-looking Echo-com. By the way it sits, and by a rather new-looking dent in the dusty metal, you assume that it was dropped by someone. Perhaps they were in a hurry? Maybe they meant for someone to find it. Oh well.

You pick up the Echo-Com and turn it over. No note on the back. No inscriptions or texts suggesting who the owner may be. You stand up to full height and decide that you’d like to investigate this further. It’s been pretty boring lately; you could use some excitement. You exit the alleyway, and make your way to your small apartment.

~*~

“So, what is this thing you wanted to show me,” asks Sasha. She’s your sister, and partner in crime. She is currently standing opposite to you, leaning nonchalantly against the countertop.

“Ok, so I found this sketchy looking Echo-Com in that one alley we usually avoid. It doesn’t have a name on it, but I thought it might be… interesting?” You respond, realising how stupid of an idea this was. But hey, maybe it’ll actually _have_ something interesting on it. “Look, I don’t know. Things have been super boring lately, and I thought that this might actually be _something_.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Turn it on,” Sasha demands. She looks overall disinterested, but you can tell she’s growing more curious by the minute. You look down at the battered piece of technology on the bench in front you. You locate the ‘On’ button with ease; this particular Echo-Com is no different to any other Echo-Com you’ve seen, albeit more beat-up looking.

The screen flickers on, casting a faint green light. Several icons flick onto the screen, all of which you recognise. You start to press different icons, each one wielding nothing of interest. Or at all. For some reason, this Com seems to be completely empty. You choose to see this as a sign that something may be up with this, rather than admitting that there was no point to this activity. You continue looking, undeterred.

Eventually, you open a menu that reads ‘Mission Log’. Here we go. Only a single mission sits in the otherwise empty list, opened, yet not accepted. It has no name. _Interesting_. You glance up at Sasha, who is eyeing the device with now obvious curiosity. You select the unnamed mission, and open it.

It has a description, thankfully. “Here we go,” you mutter, and proceed to read the text out loud.

 “Mt Fuzija is breeding monsters. The Great Terror is the cause.”

“Well _that_ sounds ominous,” comments Sasha. “Alright, I’m intrigued.”

“You and me both.”

“So, what should we do?”

You think for a second. “Maybe we should accept it. There might be some recording that could tell us more about this ‘Great Terror’,” you respond.

“Ok, let’s try that.”

You accept the mission. The screen blinks, and the screen goes blank, with a single glowing line running through the centre. A warbled and scratchy voice trickles through the speakers, faint enough the both you and Sasha have to lean in to decipher what its saying.

_“Mt Fuzija is breeding monsters. Any fauna that comes into contact with the mountain come back bigger and freakier than they were when they entered. I think this is the result of biosynthesis, but I can’t get inside to investigate. A beast lives deep within the mountain, and its growls can be heard through the rock. I have named it ‘The Great Terror’, and appropriately so. I think killing that beast may solve the problem, or at least fix it for a little while. Eh, it’s worth a shot, but I need someone willing to investigate. I fear that the only way to defeat the beast is to actually_ perform _biosynthesis, however I have never seen it done in humans before, and I know not what this would entail for the poor victim.”_

The tape ends abruptly.

“What the hell does that mean,” says Sasha, her curious expression now tainted with confusion.

“Dunno, but it sounds like a challenge.” You think carefully about what you’re about to say. “Maybe.. we should actually give this a shot.”

“Look, normally, I’d be in, but this sounds like a death trap. We don’t even know who made this,” Sasha retorts. Her eyes lower. “Still…”

“Well, what if we call in some backup?” you say, with a sly grin.

“Really? You really think those two would want in on something like this?”

“Eh, probably not, but they owe us some favours. And I’m pretty sure they mentioned that they wanted to go on missions with us at some stage after they’d worked their own shit out. It’ll be just like old times.”

Sasha’s eyebrows furrow, and she looks down in thought. After a brief moment, she looks up, a spark of excitement in her eyes. “Screw it. Let’s go kill this ‘Great Terror’!”

“Awesome,” you say in response. “I’ll call Rhys now, you get the van ready.” Sasha nods, and bounds out the front door. “Now if only we knew what ‘biosynthesis’ meant…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Fuzija' is Bosnian for 'fusion', if anyone was interested.


	3. A Quiet Facility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We meet our other hero. Out for a stroll as well, it seems.
> 
> -
> 
> Just a warning, Rhys thinks back on his time alone after the fall of Helios, and its not good. There's some near-death experiences, and general feelings of worthlessness. It was a bad time for him.

Weary legs lead you through the vast chrome halls of the Atlas facility. _Your_ Atlas facility. Your Atlas facility that you have worked tirelessly to clean and re-activate. Well, not _tirelessly_ ; you’re exhausted.

Your name is Rhys. It always has been, and always will be. Who else did you think you were?

You’ve spent the last year and a half cleaning and fixing, building and rebuilding, trying to bring life back to the facility. You’ve got a whole company to worry about, so you might as well start small. Get yourself on your feet first. And honestly, you’re pretty proud of what you’ve managed to achieve.

In the months between the fall of Helios, and the Vault of the Traveller, you started by rebuilding yourself. Literally. Luckily for you, most of the technology and machinery still worked. Even luckier than this, there were some cybernetic prototypes within the facility, which you had to tinker with to make compatible with your own systems.

When you pulled them all out during your… confrontation with… you know… you didn’t disturb the inner workings too badly, so it was just a matter of installing new cybernetics. Easier said than done. The arm was the easiest to fix, and the Echo-Eye and head port weren’t too much of a pain to fix and program. It was the actual installation that was the hard part.

You started with your arm, then moved on to your head. Your memory gets fuzzy at this point, and it’s not really something you want to think about. You do remember it being excruciatingly painful, that you almost blead out on multiple occasions and that you very nearly gave yourself permanent brain damage. The fact that it could have killed you never really affected you. No one would miss you, so what did it matter?

You survived the botched surgery anyway, and after giving yourself some time to heal and recover, you got to work on the facility. You don’t particularly like work, but it’s what you’ve always done. If you’re gonna get anywhere in life, you gotta work for it. Plus it offered as a good distraction from whatever was plaguing your mind at the time, so that was a perk. You started by repairing the defence systems, rebuilding old machinery and starting on your own prototypes. It was all starting to take shape.

After dealing with the Vault, and returning from your… absence… you stayed with the Children of Helios for a period of time. It was nice to properly catch up with Vaughn after so long of being separated. Eventually, you returned to the Biodome, this time with Cassius accompanying you. You found his company strange after having been alone in the facility for such a long time, but found the extra pair of hands helpful. Even if you both keep to yourselves most of the time.

You glance up from the floor. You realise you’ve just made your way to the office hub without even realising it. You should probably get some sleep, you’ve just worked for a solid 10 hours on a drone prototype. Your stomach growls, and you realise that in that time you’d also forgotten to eat anything. Ok, food first, then sleep.

You make your way towards the kitchen, glancing briefly over at the large desk. At one drawer in particular. It’s locked. You have the key. Inside it lies a broken, electric blue Echo-Eye. You told Cassius that you kept it as a sort of memento, seeing as it was your original eye, but refused to tell him your actual reason for keeping it. You’re not even sure yourself.

A chill runs down your spine. You know it’s just your nerves, but sometimes it feels like the drawer is watching you. Like the eye is watching you through the lock. Like Jack is watching you through…

You tear your eyes from the drawer, and walk briskly out of the room. You refuse to think about it any further. Dwelling on your mistakes would eventually drive you insane, so best to avoid it.

As you’re walking, you feel a shudder run through your arm. Your eye and port blink twice, and you hear a ringing in your left ear. That’s weird, who would be calling you now? You raise your robotic arm in front of you, splaying out your fingers and exposing your palm. A small screen projects from the orb fixed into your hand, telling that the ID of the caller is Fiona. Huh.

You both talk fairly often now, but she usually doesn’t make a call, just an Echo-Message. This intrigues you. You connect the call. “Well hello, Fiona. What brings you here on this fine evening,” you say. You see her roll her eyes, then adopt a semi-serious expression.

“We can get to the niceties later. I have something to ask you.”

~*~

“So let me get this straight: you want me and Vaughn to help you and Sasha find some big monster and kill it, because you heard it from an unnamed Echo-Com you found on the street, whilst some unknown force is mutating all of the native wildlife, and we have no idea what it’ll do to people?” you say in disbelief.

“Well of course it sounds bad when you put it like that,” Fiona retorts, her expression frustrated.

“I just don’t know why you’d want to do this! I know you guys are into some crazy stuff, but you literally know nothing about what’s going on here.”

“Well can’t you scan stuff with your eye? You can ‘gather data’ or whatever it is that thing does, and we might be able to figure out what’s going on. Vaughn can come too,” Fiona adds.

You squint your eyes. “Look, this offer sounds _really_ tempting, but I think I’ll pass. I’d rather my skeleton remain _inside_ my body thank-you-very-much.”

“What if we told you we’re right outside, and if you don’t come out we’ll come in and drag you out if you don’t agree?”

“What?” you blink in confusion. “Yeah right.”

You open another window on your display, and bring up the surveillance footage of the entrance to the facility. You see that Fiona and Sasha are, in fact, standing right outside. “Ah.” You’re already regretting giving them the Fast Travel code to the Biodome (the Fast Travel Station that took you weeks to install).

“So, what say you just come outside and we get this show on the road?” she taunts.

“Look Fiona, I already said I’m not coming.”

“You have until the count of three, Rhys.”

“Seriously, you think that’s gonna work?”

“One.”

“I’m not a child, Fiona. I’m not gonna come out just because you can do basic math.”

“Two.”

“I have a will of steel, I’ll never crack!”

“Thr-“

“OK FINE! I’ll come! Just give me a minute.”

You close the display and briskly disconnect the call. You refuse to acknowledge the smirk on her face as the image flashes away. You lower your hand and continue down the hallway. Maybe it won’t be as bad as it sounded.

Admittedly, you’d started to miss going out on missions, made difficult by everyone being busy working out their own lives. The nervousness now growing in your stomach aside, you’re actually a little excited.

First you’d have to let Cassius know you’d be gone for a while, then grab some fruit from the kitchen. The Children of Helios don’t have a Fast Travel station, with the nearest one being a two hour drive away, and you aren’t waiting that long to get something to eat. Fiona and Sasha could be patient for a few more minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The flashbacks were my interpretation of what happened to Rhys after the fall of Helios. He went through a lot with Handsome Jack, plus the fact that as far as he knew all his friends either hated him or were probably dead. It was rough for a while. But he started getting better when he found all his friends and made amends with them. Plus being able to talk to someone about it all helped get a load off his chest. 
> 
> On a lighter note: no one is immune to the Mom Voice™. Rhys is no exception.


End file.
